The present invention relates generally to metallic nanowire decorated carbon allotropes, and specifically to methods of preparing such allotropes and dispersing them into polymeric matrices.
It is known that materials with improved mechanical properties, such as thermal conductivity, can be created by blending metallic nanowires, with various polymers. In these methods, metallic nanowires were synthesized by a templateless method, isolated, and subsequently blended with various polymers. However, in these methods, the inclusion of the nanowires into an organic matrix was hampered by poor dispersability of pure nanowire additives into polymeric matrices. Continuous ways are being sought to take advantage of metallic nanowires and incorporate such materials into composite polymeric matrices.